Ask Mike Tran about a dining trend he's tired of and he'll tell you in one word: ramen.

"These days, it's cool to do ramen. But no one wants to make the noodles from scratch every day because it's tough. No one wants to cook and clean broth for 36 hours when you can buy the pure white concentrate from a supplier," he said. "You can even buy pork belly that's already cooked and ready to go."

Ramen's popularity didn't stop Tran, however, from opening Tiger Den, a new, 60-seat sliver of a restaurant in a busy Chinatown mall that specializes in - you guessed it - ramen.

But he's taking no shortcuts with his bowls of steaming Asian soul food. His ramen broth takes 36 hours of boiling bones and straining to prepare. To this creamy perfection he adds Hakata-style ramen - thin, firm noodles that are made in house daily.

The self-taught cook - who owns Aka Sushi House with his business partner, Martina Yang - said he saw the ramen craze coming years ago. When he decided to open Tiger Den, ramen was "blowing up" on the East and West coasts. In Houston, it's a certifiable trend with Ramen Jin opening soon and reports that the California-based restaurant Jinya Ramen will open next year in Midtown. Ramen also is on the lips of foodies who frequent Goro & Gun, Kata Robata and Soma Sushi to feed their noodle fix.

For many Asians, ramen is an "everyday food - just like a burger," said Tiger Den's owner Tran, who is Chinese born in Vietnam. "I can eat noodles every day."

The restaurant offers four varieties of ramen: traditional tonkotsu ramen (pork noodle soup), garlic black bean ramen, miso or spicy miso ramen and tantan ramen, which is flavored with minced pork, peanuts, chilies and mustard green pickle. At $8.50-$9.50, these bowls might be the most affordable top-shelf ramen in town. He said hand-cut Korean noodles, jjamppong, will eventually make its way onto the menu.

While Tran is proud of his ramen, he said Tiger Den offers much more than noodle soup. There is a long list of yakitori - robata-grilled skewers of chicken gizzard, chicken hearts, chicken skin, pork belly, pork jowl, beef tongue, lamb, ribeye steak, beef liver and shrimp. Tran and his chefs have created special glazes, marinades, oils and seasonings for each of the different skewered preparations. Even the finishing sea salt sprinkled on meats has been toasted in the wok with shiitake mushrooms and seaweed for flavor.

Tran's path to ramen and yakitori perfection isn't typical. The owner of a print shop and graphic design firm called NX Media in Houston, Tran got into the restaurant business when he was an investor in Aka Japanese Cuisine in 1994. After a year, he took over the restaurant and decided to start learning about kitchen operations. He opened Aka Sushi House with Yang in 2007. Although not a chef, he has the refined palate of a chef. And, like a chef, he follows his culinary instincts. "I know what I'm looking for. I know what's good and what's not," he said.

Foodies must agree that Tran knows what he's talking about. From the first day Tiger Den opened, it was mobbed.

More Information

Tiger Den

Dun Huang Plaza

9889 Bellaire, D-230

832-804-7755

"The first day, I expected 50 people. Three hundred showed up," Yang said.

Overwhelmed, Tran closed for two weeks so that the restaurant could perfect the ramen, make improvements to service and refine the menu. When it reopened customers were willing to wait an hour for their ramen.

Tran is tickled by the current ramen frenzy in Houston. But he's also glad his timing is good.

And while he's dedicated to making a fantastic bowl of ramen, he hopes Tiger Den is known more for being a nice, casual place to eat. "It was never meant to be fine dining," he said of his spiffy shop. "We just wanted a decent place for people to hang out."

HERE ARE SOME MORE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TRAN:

A local chef I admire is Rikesh Patel, formerly of Ambrosia. He's a creative guy. We went to Japan and China just to eat. That trip inspired me to do the Tiger Den concept.

My favorite kitchen tool is my commercial green onion shredder. We go through a case of green onions every hour. The first week, we did it by hand and lost staff.

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